114th floor. Going Up.
The CN Tower
2 September 2007
The CN Tower - you can't get it all in
It was still bright and sunny as we filtered out of the Rogers Stadium but we both realised that this was now September and that the sun would be going down within a few hours. If the queue for the tower was still as bad as at lunch time we might not get to see Toronto from above in daylight.
The CN Tower is a huge antenna with a total height of 553.33 metres and is used by telephone, radio and TV broadcasters.
It is still ranked as the tallest building in the world.
At base level the staff greeted us with cheery smiles and yes it was going to take us about two hours to get up to the observation platform. By all means with our passes we could go back any day, but any other day we reckoned would be exactly the same - so, we went for it.
It was no worse than waiting on something at the funfair and the time in the lift was going to last almost as long as some of the rides we have been on. There wasn't much to do apart from watch the screens talking about the tower, but with everybody nattering around us it was really difficult to follow anything in either language.
Finally we got to the lift and off we went. You are in fact enclosed within a tube but it is glass fronted so you get a clear view outwards as you ascend at 22 kph. Fifty eight seconds later you arrive at the lookout level.
The view is fabulous and on a really clear day you are supposed to be able to see as far as Niagara and even into New York State. We weren't quite that lucky as it was so hot there was a lot of haze but even so Toronto stretched out before us.
There we were at 346 metres above the ground and well above the skyscrapers; some of which are tall enough in their own right. For some reason, despite all the land available, Toronto wants to go up rather than out.
Along the water front there are blocks of apartments going up and I am told they fetch silly prices on the market. It isn't as if you are even guaranteed a view of the lake.
My hero - no chance that I was going on there
Down below us the vehicles really do look like wee toys and people have become dots. There is an enclosed observation deck but you can also walk outside with just a grill, but much more to the point the architects decided to put in a glass floor as well.
If you look at the photograph you can see that the first observation platform sits like a saucer over the spindle of the tower.
Allowing for the fact that I knew that there was nothing much underneath the carpet I was standing on it doesn't really make much sense that I didn't want to go standing on the windows - even if I also knew that they were probably as thick as the concrete, but that was the case.
According to the tower the solid glass floor will take the weight of 14 hippos, so to save family honour JJ offered to sit on it (So despite rumours we can be assured that he weighs less than 14 hippos).
I am pretty certain that he didn't look down though !
For a fine view over the lake and harbour airport we eat in the restaurant. The choice of beer was not exciting and we ended up with a Molson's Canadian which is a lager and tastes like nothing much at all. Their equivalent to 33 or Harp I suppose.
The snack portions were large enough to leave JJ and I in need of nothing at all later on in the evening.
The Sky Pod
Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris if you want to go up further you have to take a second lift: the Sky Pod, which travels up the interior of the antenna.
The CN Tower at night
You are now at 447 metres above the ground (1 465 feet in old money) and standing within what looks like a ring near the top of the tower.
When you think that the York Hotel used to be one of largest buildings in Toronto it makes you realise just how tall the others are. It is in the bottom right hand corner one of the photos; on the opposite side of the road to the green roofed railway station.
The one thing I can remember about my previous visit was the fact that the weather was not brilliant and the top of the tower was all but invisible some days.
Tonight however, the sun was starting to go down, a glowing red ball slipping beneath the horizon. The lights of the city slowly came on and by the time we had descended to ground level again it was night.
We walked along the harbour a ways and then up underneath the railway station to the front of the York Hotel. From down here the hotel is large enough to blot out many of the taller towers around it but turning round, the spire of the CN Tower dwarfs all within view.
We walked back up Yonge Street looking at the advertising boards and making fun of the pedestrian crossings at Dundas Square. When they change to green they beep but to us it was the sound of geese rather than a click or other sound.
The weather for the Monday was looking very hot as opposed to a grey Tuesday so we thought we would do the zoo in the morning and perhaps museums later on Tuesday.
See also